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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JANUARY 16, 2017
Ceremony: ‘We fight a war every day’
Continued from Page 1A
Shortly after handing a tow
line to a crew member above
and closing the watertight
hatch, he said, the boat rolled
onto its side.
“The next thing, she was
upside down, and the ceiling
was the floor,” he said. “I kept
waiting for it to keep going,
because everybody had told us,
‘Oh, it’s a re-rightable boat.’
Well, it hadn’t been built that
way.”
When the boat finally
flipped upright, Huggins said,
the rest of the crew was gone.
Huggins, struggling to speak
because of the memory, said he
held onto the boat for more than
an hour before it flipped again,
sending him into the icy waters.
“I knew I was gone at that
time, because once you’re out
there in that water out there in
wintertime, you’re only good
for maybe 15, 20 minutes,” he
said. “All we were wearing was
just plain dungarees and a foul
weather jacket. We didn’t have
the equipment like they have
nowadays.”
Huggins said he was hit
by something and passed out,
but eventually saw a light and
was saved from the surf by two
Coast Guardsmen from North
Head Lighthouse.
Of his fellow crewman —
coxswain John Culp, engineer
Joseph Petrin, seaman appren-
tice Gordon Sussex and boat-
swain’s mates John Hoban
and Ralph Mace — Huggins
said Culp was the only other
body ever found. The Triumph
went down as the worst Coast
Guard disaster in the Pacific
Northwest.
Going to war,
coming back
Looking at the calm seas,
Huggins said, someone might
not notice how bad it can get.
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Renovating the Astoria Library tops the goals of the
Astoria City Council next fiscal year.
Lee LaFollette
Gordon Huggins, left, is the lone survivor from the 52-foot motor lifeboat Triumph, which
was lost 56 years ago, along with five of his fellow crewman. Holding Huggins’ hand is
Jeff Rusiecki, a retired Coast Guardsman who with Huggins began a memorial to those
guardians who have died in the Pacific Northwest.
“We fight a war every day
that we go out in those boats,”
he said. “We may not be hav-
ing bullets shot at us, but we
are still fighting mother nature.
She’s out there every day, and
we have to watch ourselves
every day we go out.”
Twenty Coast Guardsmen
have lost their lives on rescues
and in training in the Pacific
Northwest, including four
aboard a 36-foot motor lifeboat
in 1946, five on the Triumph,
three during night naviga-
tion training on a 41-foot util-
ity boat, one in a Coast Guard
aircraft in 1981, three during a
1997 rescue of a sailing boat on
Washington’s Quillayute River
Bar and three when a Jayhawk
helicopter from Air Station
Sitka went down on a return
trip from Astoria.
Adm. Mark Butt is com-
mander of the Coast Guard’s
13th District covering the
Pacific Northwest. On Jan. 11,
1991, he was a command duty
officer at Air Station Astoria
when one Coast Guardsmen
and two mariners died during
the rescue of the 75-foot trawler
Sea King in rough seas.
Butt was a pilot aboard an
HH-65 Dolphin helicopter
assisting in the rescue. While
lowering a swimmer with water
pumps to the Sea King, he said,
the hoist cable wrapped around
the mast of the boat as it unex-
pectedly turned. The cable
eventually snapped, sending
the swimmer to the deck and
the cable snapping up into the
helicopter’s rotor head.
“We immediately had
severe vibrations, and the
book said land or ditch imme-
diately,” Butt said. “In that sea
state, to land or ditch immedi-
ately would have meant several
people on that helicopter would
be dead today. So I said a small
prayer, bee-lined back over this
way and managed to get the air-
craft on deck before the rotor
head gave out.”
The Sea King eventually
capsized and sank. A Coast
Guardsmen and two crew
members in the pilothouse went
down with the vessel. Butt said
he still has nightmares about
what could have gone wrong
with the helicopter. He the three
lives lost trying to save the Sea
King were too much. Today, he
said, the Coast Guard still offers
the same lifesaving service, but
thinks more about the risk to its
own service members.
Capt. William Timmons,
commander of Sector Colum-
bia River, said it is the respon-
sibility of the living to come
together and remember those
guardians who gave their
lives. He ended with a quote
from British poet John Max-
well Edmonds: “When you go
home, tell them of us, and say,
‘For your tomorrow, we gave
our today.’”
Germond: Has worked with many directors
Continued from Page 1A
Children’s Theatre visited
Astoria to create plays with
North Coast kids, his mother
signed him up.
Later, at Knappa High
School, he became a stalwart
of the Thespian Club, garnering
applause for stage productions
and for creating videos, includ-
ing for his health class, which
tapped into his love of Monty
Python-style humor.
“He is very creative and has
a lot of potential,” said Becca
Germond, who lives in Ham-
mond. “His love for theater has
been his strong point.”
Childhood challenges
When Justin Germond audi-
tioned for Astor Street Opry
Company some years ago, he
shared nothing of the chal-
lenges that had dominated
his childhood, recalled Judith
Niland, longtime director and
producer.
She encouraged him in
“Shanghaied in Astoria.” “I
sensed that something was dif-
ferent,” she said, remembering
early rehearsals. “He needed
a different form of communi-
cation style. At first, the direc-
tor, Nate (Bucholz), was frus-
trated, so I kept watching. I
thought perhaps he was hard of
hearing, so I would look at him
and he would lock on to what
I was saying and do what was
needed.”
As others developed a sim-
ilar rapport, Germond was cast
in two lead roles, Max Krooke,
Jr., in “Scrooged in Astoria,” a
performance his current direc-
tor, Edward James, described
Patrick Webb/For The Daily Astorian
Justin Germond, left, appears in a comic restaurant scene
with Gigi Chadwick in the Partners for the PAC play “All in
the Timing” in Astoria, which concludes this weekend. The
28-year-old Astoria man was diagnosed with autism at an
early age and has used acting as a way to express himself
by portraying characters who are different from himself.
as “terrific,” and Meriwether
in the company’s “The Real
Lewis and Clark Story.”
“I had a really strong feeling
that he would be good — and
he was,” Niland said. “Now
he is a pretty strong actor and
has worked with numerous
directors.”
Markus Brown directed
Germond in a couple of shows
and said he benefited from
Niland’s advice on how to
channel his enthusiasm. “He is
a very smart young man. He
understands things — he gets
complicated concepts,” Brown
said. “In his exuberance to per-
form, he would get carried
away and you would have to
dial that back a bit.”
The play
This weekend, Germond
appears in three of the six
scenes in the play by New York
comedy writer David Ives. It
opened Friday and concludes
its run at the Clatsop Commu-
nity College Performing Arts
Center with three upcoming
shows Friday through Sunday.
Although the scenes all
find humor in communica-
tion issues, they are starkly
different. Germond portrays
three roles: a man trapped in a
weird time warp, a construction
worker with an unusual secret,
and a chimpanzee locked in
a cage who is ordered to type
“Hamlet.”
He shrugs off the chal-
lenge. “Each one needs a differ-
ent mindset,” he said. “It’s giv-
ing the director what they want
in a way that embodies the
character.”
James, the director, recalled
positive experiences directing
him in “Murder at Checkmate
Manor” and “The Foreigner,”
in which Germond’s apparently
pleasant clergyman character
was hiding a dark secret. He
acknowledges developing this
production has been challeng-
ing, because Germond’s three
characters are so distinct.
“I picked him to do the show
because he has shown me that
he has a good ear and an agile,
strong voice and can be directed
to grasp a nuanced character,”
James said. “In fact, he is one of
the quicker members of the cast
to understand adjustments I ask
him to make in line readings.”
Thrived in drama
Lloyd Bowler, who retired
as Knappa High School’s spe-
cial education teacher in 2008,
recalls Germond from years
ago as a pleasant student who
thrived in drama.
Speaking generally, he said
theater has positive benefits
because it offers a framework
for emotions. “Autistic peo-
ple have a hard time operating
without structure,” Bowler said.
“In drama productions, they
are portraying emotions, they
have to be verbal and expres-
sive. These are things that most
autistic people are not … but
they have got the script.”
For Astor Street’s Niland,
Germond’s continued stage
success is not a surprise. “I
understand how the theater
empowers people who are dif-
ferent or have a learning dis-
ability,” she said.
— Patrick Webb
The writer appears in a sep-
arate scene in the play “All in
the Timing” at the CCC PAC
in Astoria 7 p.m. Friday 7 p.m.
Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday.
Timber suit: By doing nothing, districts remain in suit
Continued from Page 1A
cost the counties $35 million
a year in revenue since 1998,
when the Board of Forestry
adopted a rule focusing more
on salmon and wildlife habitat.
The counties and taxing dis-
tricts involved could receive a
sizable settlement if the law-
suit goes the plaintiffs’ way.
Some fear the lawsuit could
lead to a change in rules allow-
ing more logging on state land
and potentially higher taxes to
finance a settlement.
Making the rounds
Linn
County
Commis-
sioner Roger Nyquist con-
firmed that he and John
DiLorenzo, a lawyer for the
county in the lawsuit, met with
the Clatsop Community Col-
lege Board Tuesday to talk
about the suit. The college’s
board will decide Jan. 24
whether to remain involved.
The Port scheduled a closed
executive session before its
Tuesday meeting to discuss
“litigation filed or likely to be
filed.” Jim Knight, the Port’s
executive director, confirmed
that DiLorenzo will meet with
the Port Commission Tuesday.
Afterwards, the commission
will meet in public and decide
whether to remain a plaintiff.
Many parties
In his motion for class-ac-
tion certification, DiLorenzo
identified 15 counties and at
least 130 taxing districts state-
wide receiving revenues from
state timberlands. In Clatsop
County, they included agencies
overseeing schools, firefight-
ing, police, health care, trans-
portation and water supplies.
County Manager Cameron
Moore said that of the 30 dis-
tricts identified in the county,
five were automatically opted
out by the county’s decision.
The other 25 will make their
own decisions. By doing noth-
ing, they remain in the lawsuit.
Moore said some of the big-
ger players, in terms of revenue,
are the county, Seaside School
District, Jewell School District,
the college and the Port.
Jewell
Superintendent
Alice Hunsaker said she has
talked with DiLorenzo, and
that the school district will
decide this week what to do.
Seaside Superintendent Sheila
Roley could not be reached
for comment, nor could law-
yers for the state on whether
they have planned any visits
with the counties and taxing
districts.
Council: Library’s
roof needs regular
inspections and
maintenance
Continued from Page 1A
through a public-private
partnership in a way that
will include housing for
residents. The move would
indicate a council serious
about confronting Astoria’s
severe housing shortage.
The city originally
bought the property from
Safeway to have control
over the centrally located
site. Before Heritage Square
became an option for new
library grounds, commu-
nity discussion centered on
whether the parcel could be
transformed into a public
park or plaza, or a mixed-
use setting. Estes said
some talk mentioned hous-
ing units, but questions lin-
gered as to how that could
be achieved.
Nemlowill said she
believes the city cannot
afford to redevelop the site
alone, or that Parks and Rec-
reation — an already over-
extended department —
should be handed another
site to look after.
The council agreed that
the city has an acute need
for more housing units, and
adding some at Heritage
Square would, Nemlowill
said, contribute to the vital-
ity of downtown — and to
the tax rolls.
Councilor Tom Brown-
son said, “I think residents
need to know that we’re
looking at this from a really,
I think, pragmatic point
of view of what we can do
and what we can’t do —
what the city can do and
can’t do — in the next five
years based on income and
revenue.”
The library, a critical
concern during Friday’s ses-
sion, has been a divisive
topic among locals.
Aware that the nearly
50-year-old building is
worn out and cannot sup-
port the needs of modern
library users, some residents
thought it best to upgrade
the facility, a specimen of
Brutalist architecture, while
others hoped to construct
a new library at Heritage
Square, a project that could
require a bond measure.
In July, after months of
public debate, the council
voted against the Heritage
Square proposal and tossed
out other expensive propos-
als, like expanding into the
vacant Waldorf Hotel. The
council ultimately directed
city staff to devise a plan for
renovating the current build-
ing with money on hand.
Councilor Cindy Price
noted Friday, however, that
the council’s motion was
“looser” than it probably
should have been. Mem-
bers of the public, she said,
had become confused about
what the council would be
willing to do.
The council made it clear
that Heritage Square, or any
other new site, wasn’t an
option. “We’re no longer
going to look for another
property,” Mayor Arline
LaMear said.
To get the process under-
way, staff will work closely
with the library foundation
to estimate a budget, basing
the figure on city funds and
the foundation’s fundrais-
ing forecast. The city would
Other goals
then hire an architect to pro-
The council also plans to:
duce design concepts for a
• Increase Astoria’s hous-
building that the money — ing stock for residents by
$2 million to $3 million, say implementing the provisions
— could buy.
listed in the city’s affordable
Councilor Zetty Nem- housing study. The council
lowill said she wants Library said the city should incen-
Director Jimmy Pearson, tivize the rehabilitation of
and the library foundation, derelict and vacant residen-
to work closely with the city tial properties for long-term
as the project
housing.
goes forward.
• Make Parks
Though the
‘I mean, and Recreation
council has not
more manage-
talk
fixed a deadline
able by having
for completing
department
about a the
the renovation,
focus on the
City Manager blight on city’s “most val-
Brett Estes said
ued programs
he would hope the city.’ and places.”
the project could
LaMear said
Cindy Price
be finished by
she believes this
Astoria city councilor,
2020.
will include sell-
talking
about Heritage
LaMear said
ing less import-
Square
the foundation
ant properties
feels a sense
under the depart-
of urgency, particularly ment’s care. “The parks
because the roof needs reg- department has too much to
ular inspections and mainte- take care of,” she said.
nance. While the renovation
In addition, the council
comes together, Estes said, will work to implement the
“it’s recognized that we may parks master plan, includ-
have to spend some money ing the creation of a special
to keep patching it over this master plan for Ocean View
time.”
Cemetery, a city-main-
tained cemetery located in
Housing at
Warrenton.
Heritage Square
• Enhance community
The City Council’s deci- awareness on disaster resil-
sion to remodel the aging iency, and explore relocat-
structure comes with a ing public safety facilities
bonus, Price pointed out: outside the tsunami inunda-
The library issue is now tion zone.
uncoupled from the issue of
• Develop a master plan
reviving Heritage Square, for downtown parking that
the former Safeway parking increases parking options
lot that is now a yawning pit and addresses pedestrian
in the downtown core.
safety.
“I mean, talk about a
• Complete the Urban
blight on the city,” Price Core area of the city’s Riv-
said.
erfront Vision Plan.
The council’s tentative
• Explore options for
goal for Heritage Square reducing expenses and
is to redevelop the area boosting revenues.